


Sunshine on the Water

by TheTartWitch



Category: Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, Fate, Flashbacks, Imprinting, M/M, Massacre, Psychic Connections, Seth deserves more love from this fandom, Sorry for the OCs, the Rape/Noncon tag is for the 'noncon' part specifically, there are no sexual encounters in this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-18
Updated: 2016-04-18
Packaged: 2018-06-03 02:16:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6592582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTartWitch/pseuds/TheTartWitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ellis is on the run. He runs into Forks and meets a wolf in the woods.<br/>Seth deserves love, even if I have to make up OCs to give it to him. And Leah. She's too bitter; girl, have some fated love and canon divergence.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sunshine on the Water

Ellis was small; almost scruffy-looking, with his low-pulled baseball cap and sunglasses. His highschool hoodie was clean but still somehow gave off the impression of raggedy cloth or wear-and-tear. He didn't look at anyone on the small bus; he'd had lunch in the woods outside the last town, getting lucky with some kind of elk and big cat in one day. The scents gestating in the small bus were tempting and sweet but not overpowering, and hopefully his control wouldn't waver until he got off the bus next.  

Feeding always made him nervous, like everyone could see right through him to what he'd just done, what he'd just chased down and eaten in the woods. He'd gotten better at hunting in tandem with using his gift, but it had been difficult at the beginning.  

He tugged out the map he'd snagged at the last station, making sure to be careful with it. He wasn't as devastatingly strong as he'd once been, right after the excruciating change, but sometimes he forgot how much stronger he was than he used to be and broke things. 

The next stop was in a town called Forks, Washington D.C.. That sounded really odd, but then again Ellis had been practically everywhere, and there were definitely weirder things it could have been named. 

He smirked to himself as he remembered and tugged his cap down further over his face, forgetting for the moment that no one on the bus could see him. 

 

Forks was green, and misty, and perfect. The people gave him wary looks but no one was outright unfriendly to him, and when he found an apartment that was perfect for living in for a while and was right at the edge of town, he paid for it right away with the money he'd amassed over the years.  

He traipsed down through the town, catching scents and watching gossip in the making. A few times he smelled something odd, something he couldn't quite put his finger on, but he paid it no mind. He'd find out soon if it was anything worth worrying about.  

He went for a run in the woods to forget his thoughts and was pleased to find an abundant supply of wildlife flourishing between the trees. A little ways into the forest he froze. 

A huge wolf, gleaming brown and gold,stared at him through the trees. Ellis frowned at it, trying to place where he'd seen something like this before, but his mind kept getting caught on how soft the wolf's fur looked. He stepped forward cautiously, hand outstretched and eyes lowered, trying not to incite aggression needlessly.  

The wolf didn't move away, or lunge closer. It made a curious whining growl low in its throat but allowed him to touch it gently. Ellis smiled softly. "Wolves are always so beautiful," he said quietly, brushing a light palm over the beast's shoulder. He knelt down on the ground before it, humming a little to himself. "I always forget that." The wolf settled into his lap, its head resting on his legs and nose pushing insistently at his hip. It whuffled at him.  

He stayed that way for a while, petting the wild thing in his lap with happy focus, before he felt the approaching wind of more of his kind. He sighed and stood, the wolf huffing and moving to follow him whenever he stepped away. He tried to shoo it away, not wanting the others to find such a friendly animal and take advantage, but it growled low and practically glued itself to his side. He heaved a frustrated sigh, opting instead to reach down and grab the wolf around the middle carefully. He cooed to it as it warbled confusedly, calming it as he took off running into the woods, back towards the wolf's scent trail. His gift would ensure they weren't followed, at least, so he'd better return the wolf to its den so it would be safe, and then he could come back for visits. Maybe.  

He's a little surprised that the trail leads to the edge of the second near town, La Push. Maybe the wolf was a pet? That would sort of explain its super-friendly attitude, but wolves in general just didn't like vampires, so this wolf was either trained or was an oddball.  

He put the wolf down, smoothing its raised hackles with a quick swipe of his hand, and walked up to the door with the wolf quick on his heels. The door opened almost immediately after he knocked. 

A boy answered, looking to be about Ellis' physical age, with dark brown skin and eyes the color of oak wood. His muscles were clearly defined through the t-shirt he was wearing. He frowned darkly at Ellis, who smiled a little nervously. It was ridiculous; he had nothing to fear from a human.  

"Is this your wolf?" He asked softly, motioning to the docile animal trotting beside him. Shock passed over the boy's face.  

"Seth?" He whispered angrily. Growls echoed from deeper inside the house. "What did you do to him?" He snapped at Ellis, his form practically vibrating with anger. Ellis stumbled back a bit, his eyes wide, as he watched the boy's body ripple.  

"I – I..." He mumbled, mouth flopping open. Seth snarled at his feet, lunging in front of him to face the boy-turned-wolf. It howled in reply, and more wolves leaped out of the house, from the windows to the door left open in the boy's transformation.  

Ellis could feel the memories creeping up on him, taking over his thoughts, and the last thing he remembered was the sight of an old man's wary, expectant face twisting in confusion before he blacked out.  

 

When he regained consciousness he was calmer, more grounded. His body felt light, as though he had inhaled helium and started bobbing like a balloon. There was something warm pressing against him on the right side, something whimpering and soft and trembling.  

"Oh, god, Seth," someone said quietly, "just get away before it wakes up." 

Something cold touched his forehead, brushing against his scar, and it struck him in a sudden panic that this  _could be Them._ His hand shot up and would have grabbed the hand if only it had not been grabbed first.  

"Carlisle, you shouldn't do that. He's scarred; there's probably trauma." Someone else said, then snapped scornfully, "Don't come closer, wolf! You wouldn't be able to beat a mad one like this." 

"He's not mad! They scared him! He was like a human in the woods, and he only grabbed me because he thought I was an animal and didn't want to leave me to you!"  

Something about the voice roused Ellis. It was painfully sincere. His eyes fluttered open and he squinted into the sky. If he could just get them to stop touching him, he could use his gift and find the voice.  _Elle_ _..._  He thought, struggling feebly in the grasp of the others.  

"-is mad, can't you see?" The snappish one growled, tugging at his wrist with apparent anger. There was a sharp yanking sensation and he opened his mouth to question it but then a violent pain was tearing his arm off and instead of a civil inquiry there was a brutish scream winding its way out of his throat. 

" _Edwar_ _d_!" Someone else screamed, and he was pulled away, whimpering and trying to grab at the stump where his arm had been.  

"Ssh, ssh, don't worry, I've got you," someone murmured, petting at his hair soothingly. After a moment his arm returned to his body and he pulled it in close. 

"Not mad, not mad, I promise," he begged, nuzzling into whatever had saved him.  

"I know, darling." The voice said quietly, shaking with something.  

"Seth?!" Something called, fear coloring their tone. Ellis went deathly silent, eyes wide but unseeing, his hands clenched in the body's clothes.  

"I'm fine, just calming him down." Ellis closed his eyes to think, but was soon dropping off into meditation.  

 

When next he woke he was alone. He was lying in a bed in a room he didn’t recognize, and at his feet, curled up, was the wolf from the forest. He was up and by the beast's side in an instant, brushing his hand over its head for comfort. Had it been a dream? But surely he would have been able to see it for himself if it had been one of  _those_ dreams.  

Either way, it didn't matter. It meant this place wasn't safe. It meant he'd have to leave and settle somewhere else.  

The wolf's muzzle rose into the air as he stepped away, towards the window, and it growled slowly, deeper and thicker as it realized what he was doing. He shushed it quickly. "I have to go. They're looking for me, and I can't let Them catch me again."  

What sounded like a questioning whuffle escaped the wolf's muzzle, and it sat on his foot in protest. He grinned. "The Volturi can't be allowed to get ahold of me again. They'd cause a war."  

 

He's out the window and jumping into the yard in the span of a second, the wolf beside him and snapping at his heels. It swings around in front of him and whines, rolling onto its back. He stares at it for a moment, perplexed, before moving to step around it. The wolf was on its feet in a second, blocking his way, and around them Ellis could see and hear others taking notice.  

"Go," he said desperately, motioning the beast away with flapping hands. The wolf whined, bounding up to him playfully, but he stepped back, shaking his head. "I can't take you with me, wolf. If They find you with me you won't last very long." He couldn't believe he was trying to reason with an animal; he must be more afraid than he'd ever been.  

Someone on the sidelines stepped closer and he instinctively shied away, ducking to the wolf's side and gently fisting a hand in its fur. The wolf snuggled up to him happily and snapped at the man who approached. The man stopped with a raised eyebrow to the wolf, cuing more whining, apologetic this time.  

"Who are you?" The man asked, his muscular arms rippling in the afternoon sun. He was large, well-built for one of his size, and he gave off the feeling that if he had to he could take Ellis down. Ellis tossed his head indignantly, but a nudge from the wolf made him sigh and spill.  

"Ellisteir Pieradottir." He admitted, remembering the day his mother had told him the history of that name and why he was receiving it despite being male. The wolf sniffed. "What are you?" It was obvious there was something going on here; the wolf was too intelligent, the men all had the same, rippling-with-power-and-mystery look, and Ellis' intuition was banging on steel drums with iron mallets in the back of his head.  

"Wolves," said the man softly, and Ellis froze. _Don't come closer, wolf. You wouldn't be able to handle a mad one like this._  His eyes slanted to his right, where his wolf sat, tail wagging. There must have been something wrong with his face, because the man took a stilted step forward, as though he wanted to get close but couldn't. "That's Seth, Leah's little brother." And here he points to a girl Ellis hadn't noticed before, one who's watching the wolf at Ellis' side with concern and quiet pain. Something about her expression reminds him of Ellesmere when she watched him leave with Aro: helplessly sad and frustrated all at once.  

"I am... a vampire," Ellis murmurs to Seth sadly. "I know the purpose of your people." The man sucks in a breath but Ellis doesn't turn back to him. "I am looking for someone. When I find her, I will return with her and you may deal with us then. Is that satisfactory to you, Seth-Wolf?"  

Seth cries out in a canine sort of way as Ellis turns away and jogs to the edge of the tree-line. He turns once, to memorize the house and the people and the scent, and when his eyes fall on Seth again they are old and tired and haunted.  

He runs to the melody of Seth's brokenhearted howls. 

 

"He was the one?" Sam asks softly. Seth almost doesn't hear him.  _He left, he left, I have to catch him before he gets too far..._  But deep inside, he knows how that will end. The vampire he'd given his heart to against his will would return for an execution, and then Seth would follow soon after.  

The pack watches him shift back in silence, watches his eyes stare into the distance like he has no intention of ever living again, and after an hour or two Leah steps forward to gently tug him away to the porch, where he curls up on the swing and waits for his soul to come home. 

 

Elle is not difficult to find; they had a meeting place already agreed on when they escaped, and she has carved out a home here, alone in the mountains where they lived before the Volturi discovered them. "Brother," she greets him, and he hugs her in his arms, inhaling her scent like he's been dying without it. Somehow, it doesn't feel as comforting as it used to, like something else has taken her place.  

They are not true siblings; her family and his were taken the same day, kept in the same pen under the vampire kings' city, and after a while they grew to regard each other as brother and sister. They'd never had a true appreciation for the other sex, to be quite honest, and acknowledging that to each other made their lives (and then their deaths) so much easier than pretending. There was a sort of closeness that could only come from being tortured together, after all.  

They go inside her hovel and sit on the dusty floor, just staring at each other. Her gift and his are not so different, really; she merely operates on the other end of the spectrum. Where he can become invisible and scentless, she overpowers her enemies with bursts of light from beneath her skin and a scent that is distracting to anything with a nose. Together, they are powerful; apart, they are safe. It is not really a difficult choice for them, if they're telling the truth. 

When he tells her of the wolves she nods. They need no explanations between them; legends of wolves existed back in their village all those years ago, stories of huge breathtaking beasts created to fight vampires, to keep them in check. In the dungeons of Volterra they were a great comfort, providing the illusion that one day the wolves would come and see what they had done and... well. They never did, of course, but it was nice to dream of things that weren't full of pain or Aro's eyes, laughing at them from the blood-soaked throne room.  

She agrees to go with barely any explanation. She tells him of the things she's seen up here, of bodies barely disposed of that rotted ages ago, of farmlands and fields once filled with food and flowers that were trampled under vampire feet during the invasion. She tells him of the wild cats roaming the hills, how they come to her door at night and she lets them in to sleep on the bed for the warmth.  

They set off in the middle of the night. They've already stayed too long; it's been two weeks and Ellis had felt the need for his wolf growing inside. They bid the village goodbye and Elle leaves a little food for her cats. He pretends not to notice the way she silently scoops up a pretty golden kitten and names it  _Soleil._  

They return to a war. 

The wolves are siding with the vampires that inhabited Forks before Ellis, and Elle and he skip right into the middle of the field. On the other side of the clearing is an army, and standing in the center is Aro. Ellis feels his borrowed blood run cold at the sight of the man, and is painfully reminded of how he'd fed just before coming back. Aro had always preferred to feed from Ellis right after he'd eaten.  

Elle turns to face Aro impassively, Soleil bucking and squealing in her arms. She adjusts the kitten carefully so that the tiny beast is facing her chest instead of Aro's 'family'. Ellis stares them down, and he knows that together, the differences that divide their time from the rest of the world's is obvious: their ears are pointed at the tips like elves, their eyes glitter like they are backlit by fire, and their limbs are slender and long, ending in delicate features and quick fingers and toes.  

Ellis and Elle stand in the middle of an impasse, watching Aro's mind work and connect them, and they both step back when he opens his arms to them and says cheerfully, "Ellisteir! Ellesmere! My children!" And they shudder in disgust because there are things you  _don't do_ to children; Elle's tongue will never grow back, and Ellis will never trust another. Sacrifices were made for their sanity, items and memories and lives they will never retrieve, and it has left them like carved pottery, empty and cold and growing dust in all the important parts. 

There is a familiar whuffle from Ellis' side and before he can stop himself he is curling a fist in his wolf's fur, gathering comfort from his beast.  

"Ellis," a voice calls from behind the four of them, Ellis and Elle and Soleil and Seth, and when he turns to face it he notices that the wolves almost outnumber the vampires and he smiles, remembering the childhood stories about wolves. Out of nowhere he remembers the apartment he bought so long ago and thinks to himself,  _I could live here for a long time_.  

A dark man, one he remembered from Seth's house, was speaking to him. A woman and child stood beside him, and there was another man halfway between Ellis and the three. "Who do you fight for?" The man asked, and Elle spun around at that, eyes blazing, but Ellis stopped her before she could do something she would regret. That question had not been new to their ears for some time. Soleil, sensing her mistress' distress, hissed and spat but was careful not to unsheathe her claws while in Elle's arms.   

Ellis tugged gently at Seth's fur, leading him back to the pack he'd bounded from. Elle followed, still seething. They fell into step with another wolf, the female, Leah if Ellis wasn't mistaken. Her coloring resembled Seth's, but where he was an energetic puppy her steps were solemn and full of meaning. There was a slight pause where Elle's side knocked against the great wolf's and they both froze, staring at each other like they'd discovered something buried so deep they'd completely forgotten about it.  

 _Imprinting_ , sang a voice in Ellis' head that wasn't his own, and he was surprised to not feel threatened as it registered on some dim scale that Seth was the voice from before that had argued in Ellis'defense.  

 

There was a time, during the battle, where Ellis came face-to-face with Aro, his torturer and tormentor of so many long, immortal years. He imagined, in that moment, everything he'd ever wanted to do to Aro. In the end, he settled for watching in satisfaction as Seth ripped Aro's head off from behind and then setting in on Aro's body himself, tearing it to burnable pieces. It satisfied something deep in his chest to watch the man who had sacrificed their entire village to be immortal come to his doom at the hands of that village's child.  

Elle and Leah fought beside each other like they'd been fighting together since childhood, with Soleil perched in the child's arms and squeaking excitedly at the mayhem.  

 

After the battle they spent a long while reclining at the Cullens' home with Ellis curled around Seth and Elle and Leah and Soleil. There were questions posed to them both but they refused to answer them until the little child, Renesmee, had hobbled over gracefully and began playing with Ellis' hair gently until he looked up. Behind the child was her ever-present shadow and the man who'd spoken before (though not at Seth's house, that had been Sam), Jacob Black.  

She'd stared at him and he'd stared back and everyone had held their breath until she said, "How old are you? Momma says it's rude to ask but you look like a kid and talk like Grandpa does sometimes."  

"Your mother is right, little girl," he'd replied, the ghost of a laugh filtering through, before adding, "I am older than Aro or Caius or Marcus were, though by mere hours. I would tell you the story, but it is full of things little girls should not hear about until they are older. Someday I will tell you, little girl, when you are not so small and your mother is not so protective."  

She considered that for a moment before nodding and letting him tuck his face back into Seth's warm side. She grabbed more fistfuls of his hair and began to play with them again.  

 

He stays. Elle and Leah and Seth and Ellis and Soleil all share the largest room in the new house they build in the place of the old one. Elle and Ellis have always been able to meditate to relax their minds and emulate their old sleep even if their bodies don't quite turn off so they can cuddle with their wolves. Elle teaches them all the sign language she uses and Ellis catches himself running habitual fingers through Seth's hair even if the wolf is in human form. Soleil grows into a fierce mountain cat-slash-kitten that still plays with any of the family members who will agree to it, and Renesmee is soon perpetually stuck as a teenager, the same as Ellis and Elle, though there are a few differences. The wolves move into the bigger house too, finding it easier to maintain than anything they could've built. Seth and Leah are so large that Ellis and Elle could ride them into battle like battle-cats, and they do sometimes, just for fun.  

Ellis and Elle haven't yet told their story to their new family, but the day is coming soon. Especially since the only other surviving member of their village,Kierail, had heard they still existed and was coming for a visit with his coven.  

Life (or a vampire's facsimile of it) was good for the pack/coven. 

**Author's Note:**

> If you want me to clarify anything or add more fluffy scenes in a follow-up oneshot, you know where the comment button is!  
> And maybe, if you're lucky, I'll slip scenes from Ellis' past in there... hmmm, this torture, with-holding-info thing is fun...


End file.
